City Climate

"Cities should be built in the countryside; the air is better." - Henry Monnier (1799 - 1877)

Cities usually have a higher air temperature than the surrounding area and hence are in the focus of climatic spatial planning. In times of climate change, the climatic differences between the city and the surrounding regions result in increasing summer heat stress on population and infrastructure. Heat stress inside and outside buildings puts a high risk to the health of sensitive population groups (e.g. elderly people; people with cardiovascular problems). Particular strong heat waves like in 2003 with significant effects on the mortality throughout Europe show the relevance of protective measures against heat exposure.

The city has a different climate, the so-called urban climate, which is different to the surrounding area regarding different meteorological variables. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) defines urban climate as "local climate which differs from that in neighbouring rural areas, as a result of urban development". That means air temperature, precipitation, concentration of air pollutants, noise and wind speed often differ from the surrounding areas.

Features & use cases

The new meteoblue city climate monitoring system enables cities within less than a year to develop an affordable infrastructure to precisely measure, forecast and model their city climate, to serve as basis for their population, their decision makers or planners.

Plug&Play approach for modern cities

Cities

Extensive monitoring of the city climate is the basis for significantly improving the quality of life by evaluating suitable urban measures. Discover the cities which are already involved in the City Climate project.